English cannot make a sentence without a verb: «I teacher» is not English. Turkish can, and does. There is no verb «to be» in the present tense — the person is marked by an ending on the noun or adjective itself. Öğretmen means teacher; öğretmenim means «I am a teacher». That is the whole sentence, one word. The endings are: -im/-ım/-um/-üm for I, -sin/-sın/-sun/-sün for you, nothing at all for he/she/it, -iz/-ız/-uz/-üz for we, -siniz/-sınız for you plural or polite, and -ler/-lar for they. They harmonize, as everything does. To say «I am not», use the separate word değil: doktor değilim. And to ask, add the question particle: Türk müsünüz? Three pieces — an ending, a negative word, a question word — and you can already introduce yourself, deny something and ask about someone.
Ben öğretmenim.I am a teacher. ben is optional — the -im already says «I». Turkish drops the pronoun unless it is being stressed.
Sen öğrencisin.You are a student. -sin is «you», and an s slides in after the vowel of öğrenci.
O doktor.He is a doctor. She is a doctor. It is a doctor. Third person takes no ending at all, and o has no gender.
Biz İngiliziz.We are English. -iz is «we». The z is a plain buzzing z, even at the end.
Siz Türk müsünüz?Are you Turkish? The question word takes the personal ending and stands as a separate word.
Onlar öğrenciler.They are students. -ler doubles as plural and as third person plural.
Ben Amerikalıyım.I am American. Amerika + lı = «of America». A y slides in before the ending because the word ends in a vowel.
Adım Thomas.My name is Thomas. Literally «my-name Thomas» — again no verb, and no «is».
Ben doktor değilim.I am not a doctor. Nouns and adjectives are negated with the separate word değil, which then takes the personal ending.
Yorgunum.I am tired. One word: yorgun (tired) + um (I am). English needs three.
Hazır mısın?Are you ready? hazır is back and unrounded, so the question particle is mı.
Çok mutluyum.I am very happy. mutlu ends in a vowel, so a y links it to the ending.
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